NEW YORK, April 30, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:ICPT) (Intercept), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel bile acid therapeutics to treat chronic liver and intestinal diseases, today announced the appointment of Rachel McMinn, Ph.D. to the newly created position of Chief Strategy Officer.

Dr. McMinn will be responsible for leading corporate strategy and business development. She will report to Mark Pruzanski, M.D., President and CEO of Intercept, and will be a member of the Intercept management team.

"Rachel is very highly regarded in the biotechnology sector," commented Dr. Pruzanski. "Her scientific and financial background, coupled with her experience as a leading research analyst, will bring valuable strategic insight to help guide Intercept's growth and future success."‎

"I am extremely excited to join Mark and the Intercept team, to build a company poised to deliver important new medicines to patients suffering from diseases with high unmet needs," said Dr. McMinn.

Dr. McMinn brings more than 13 years of biotechnology industry experience to the company. Since 2009 until joining Intercept, she was a managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, working as the lead research analyst covering the biotechnology industry. Previously, Dr. McMinn worked at Cowen and Company as a lead biotechnology analyst and started her career as a biotechnology analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry from Cornell University, a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology and chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute, and was awarded a post-doctoral Miller fellowship at the University of California, at Berkeley.

About Intercept

Intercept is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to treat orphan and more prevalent liver diseases utilizing its expertise in bile acid chemistry. The company's lead product candidate, obeticholic acid (OCA), is a bile acid analog and first-in-class agonist of the farnesoid X receptor (FXR). OCA is being developed for a variety of chronic liver diseases including primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), portal hypertension, bile acid diarrhea and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). OCA has met the primary efficacy endpoint in five placebo-controlled clinical trials, including the recently completed POISE Phase 3 clinical trial in patients with PBC and two Phase 2 clinical trials in NASH and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. OCA has received orphan drug designation in both the United States and Europe for the treatment of PBC and PSC. Intercept owns worldwide rights to OCA outside of Japan and China, where it has out-licensed the product candidate to Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma. For more information about Intercept, please visit the Company's website at: www.interceptpharma.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding Intercept's plans to develop, seek regulatory approvals for and commercialize OCA, and Intercept's strategic directives under the caption "About Intercept." These "forward-looking statements" are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the success and timing of Intercept's preclinical studies and clinical trials; Intercept's ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of OCA and any other product candidates it may develop, and the labeling under any approval it may obtain; regulatory developments in the United States and other countries; the performance of third-party manufacturers; Intercept's plans to develop and commercialize its product candidates; Intercept's ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for its product candidates; the successful development of Intercept's sales and marketing capabilities; the potential markets for Intercept's product candidates and its ability to serve those markets; the rate and degree of market acceptance of any future products; the success of competing drugs that are or become available; the loss of key scientific or management personnel; Intercept's ability to obtain additional financing; the accuracy of Intercept's estimates regarding expenses, future revenues and capital requirements; and other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in Intercept's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 2013 filed on March 14, 2014, as well as any updates to these risk factors filed from time to time in Intercept's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Intercept undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.

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